Reviewing the Resolution on Several Historical Issues and Strengthening the Consciousness of ＂Two Safeguards＂
Mao Zedong personally presided over the drafting of the Resolution on Several Historical Issues, which he revised several times. This is one of the drafts.
"Resolutely safeguard the core position of the Supreme Leader General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the whole party, and resolutely safeguard the authority of the CPC Central Committee and centralized and unified leadership" is the primary task of strengthening the party’s political construction at present. "Two Maintenance" is the great political achievement and valuable political experience that our party has obtained since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the important crystallization of our party’s successful practice of promoting great social revolution with great self-revolution in the new era, and the general consensus and common will formed by the whole party in the revolutionary forging of the new era. From the historical perspective of the Party, "two maintenance" originates from the precious historical inheritance of the Party and is the sublimation of the important experience of China’s revolution, construction and reform. Reviewing the Resolution on Several Historical Issues will help us to have a deeper understanding of the great significance of "two maintenance".
1. Maintaining the Party’s core, maintaining the authority of the CPC Central Committee and centralizing and unifying leadership is the consensus formed by our Party in its historical development.
The Resolution on Several Historical Issues adopted by the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in April 1945 (hereinafter referred to as the Resolution) is the first systematic summary of the Party’s historical experience and an important historical document of the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the new-democratic revolution. The Resolution summarizes the positive and negative experiences of the Party from its founding to the full-scale outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, especially from the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee to the Zunyi Meeting, and formally summarizes some major historical issues within the Party, especially the leadership line of the Central Committee from the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee to the Zunyi Meeting. The Resolution discusses Mao Zedong Thought’s basic contents politically, militarily, organizationally and ideologically, and speaks highly of Mao Zedong’s outstanding contribution to solving the revolutionary problem in China by using Marxism–Leninism, making full preparations for establishing Mao Zedong Thought’s guiding position for the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China and further consolidating Mao Zedong’s core position in the CPC Central Committee and the whole party.
More than 70 years have passed, and the whole party’s joy and excitement at having its own leader and a strong leadership core, as well as its sincere admiration and conscious maintenance of the party’s leaders, are still on the page. In the first paragraph of the Resolution, it is clearly pointed out: "The Party has produced its own leader, Comrade Mao Zedong, in the process of struggle. On behalf of the proletariat of China and the people of China, Comrade Mao Zedong put the highest wisdom of mankind — — Marxism–Leninism’s scientific theory is creatively applied to China, a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country with peasants as the main masses and anti-imperialism and feudalism as the direct task, which is very complicated and difficult to struggle.
The second paragraph of the Resolution emphasizes: "Our Party finally established the leadership of Comrade Mao Zedong in the Central Committee and the whole Party in the last period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War. This is the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s greatest achievement in this period and the greatest guarantee for the liberation of Chinese people. " At the end of the Resolution, it is confidently pointed out: "The practice of the China revolution in the past 24 years has proved, and is still proving, that the struggle direction of our party and the broad masses of the people throughout the country represented by Comrade Mao Zedong is completely correct." It can be said that the "Resolution" runs through the love and maintenance, pride and self-confidence of its leader Mao Zedong. Combined with the historical background at that time, it can be clearly seen that these words are by no means general slogans, but the heartfelt consensus of the whole party. It took more than four years for the Resolution to be brewed in 1941 and finally passed in 1945, which ran through the whole process of Yan ‘an rectification. The process of rectification, the drafting of the Resolution, and the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee are actually the process of our party’s continuous summary and reflection on its own history. It is in this process that the whole party reached a highly consistent consensus on Mao Zedong’s position as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole party, and formed a common will to firmly safeguard Mao Zedong’s core and leadership position.
In 1942, Liu Shaoqi pointed out in a report: The Party has a strong cadre who has undergone long-term training, a correct political line, and a party leader who is proficient in Marxism-Leninism and the actual situation in China and is supported by every party member — — Comrade Mao Zedong. In 1943, in a speech at a Politburo meeting during Yan ‘an Rectification, Zhou Enlai said: "After several years of practice, I am really convinced of Mao Zedong’s leadership." Speaking at the Politburo meeting in October 1943, Zhu De said: Practice has proved that under the leadership of Chairman Mao, all aspects have developed; If we follow Chairman Mao’s method, the China Revolution will surely win. In this study, we will each learn a set of skills, mainly Chairman Mao’s ability to handle affairs. Ren Bishi also said: After arriving in Moscow and returning to China in 1938, he read Mao Zedong’s On Protracted War, On New Democracy and On Strategic Issues of Revolutionary War, and saw that Mao Zedong completely "loved and admired" Mao Zedong in handling the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, leading the rectification movement and mastering various policies, and "realized that he was always correct because of his firm stand and correct thinking method". In the process of revising the Resolution, Zhang Wentian added the following sentence at the end: "The Congress happily pointed out that the Party has experienced all its successes and failures,Finally, under the leadership of Comrade Mao Zedong, we achieved such unity and unity ideologically, politically and organizationally for the first time! This is a party that will win, and it is a party that no force can defeat! "Because Zhang Wentian personally experienced the wrong leadership of the" Left "line and was once" in charge "within the party, his words are particularly representative, reflecting the consensus formed by our party after all its successes and failures. It is with such a consensus that such a miracle can occur: in those years of war, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in the remote and barren Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border region, relied on the ticking telegraph to command the party’s organization and armed forces throughout the country, but he was able to "make changes like an arm, like an armband, without any difficulties" and always maintained a hammer.
Second, whether there is a mature and stable leadership core and whether it can ensure the authority of the CPC Central Committee and centralized and unified leadership is related to the success or failure of the party’s cause and its future and destiny.
From the review of the Party’s history in the Resolution, we can see that the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s struggle history has never been smooth sailing, and it was full of setbacks and hardships in her early growth, even to the danger of failure.
In the later period of the First Great Revolution, the right-wing thought represented by Chen Duxiu occupied a dominant position in the leading organs, so that when the Kuomintang reactionaries launched a sudden attack on the revolutionary rebellion, they could not organize effective resistance, which led to the failure of the Great Revolution. The August 7th meeting resolutely corrected and put an end to Chen Duxiu’s right opportunism at the critical moment of the revolution, determined the general policy of agrarian revolution and armed resistance against the Kuomintang reactionaries, and called on the party and the people to continue the revolution. All these were correct and were its main aspects. However, the August 7th meeting allowed and encouraged adventurism and commandism. This kind of "Left" sentiment continued to grow after the August 7th meeting, and it gained a dominant position in the leading organs of the CPC Central Committee in November 1927. Instead of organizing an orderly retreat, the "Left" putschism ordered a few party member and the masses to organize uprisings in places where there was no hope of victory, regardless of the strength of the enemy and the mass situation after the revolution failed, which caused many losses in practical work. This error was implemented for less than half a year, and it basically ended in the practical work nationwide in April 1928.
However, the "Left" thinking and the "Left" policy broke out again in May 1930 under the stimulus of the Jiang Fengyan War. On June 11th, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee passed the resolution "New revolutionary climax and the first victory of a province or several provinces", which made the "Left" line rule the central leading organs for the second time. Under the guidance of wrong understanding, an adventure plan was made to organize armed uprisings in central cities throughout the country and concentrate the Red Army on attacking central cities throughout the country. Where this plan was implemented, the Party and revolutionary forces suffered great losses. Therefore, this "Left" line was opposed by cadres and party member, and its ruling time in the Party was short (more than three months). What is really serious is that in the struggle against "Left" adventurism, a more "Left" thought with a strong sectarian stance grew and spread, which brought serious losses to the China Revolution. At the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in January, 1931, the new "Left" opportunism line represented by Wang Ming occupied a dominant position in the central leading organs, and began the third rule of the Party by the "Left" opportunism line during the Agrarian Revolutionary War. With the temporary central moved into the central Soviet area in 1933, "Left"The wrong line was further carried out in the central revolutionary base areas and other base areas, which led to serious consequences, such as the failure of the fifth anti-encirclement campaign in the Central Soviet Area and the forced Long March of the main force of the Red Army. The revolutionary forces in the revolutionary base areas and the white areas suffered great losses, with the Red Army reduced from 300,000 to more than 30,000, and the Communist party member from 300,000 to less than 30,000. It was not until the Zunyi Conference was held in January 1935 that the rule of the "Left" opportunist line in the CPC Central Committee ended.
During this period, the reasons for these "Left" errors and so many setbacks are complicated, but one of the most prominent reasons is what Deng Xiaoping later summed up: "From Mao Liu Zhou Zhu, the Communist Party of China (CPC) really formed a stable and mature leadership group. Previous leaders were very unstable and immature. From Chen Duxiu to Zunyi Conference, no session is really mature. " For this reason, after describing many mistakes in the party’s history, the Resolution profoundly pointed out: "The Zunyi Meeting concentrated on correcting the decisive military and organizational mistakes at that time, which was completely correct. This meeting started the new leadership of the Central Committee headed by Comrade Mao Zedong, which is the most historic change in China’s party. " The Resolution regards "the new leadership of the Central Committee headed by Comrade Mao Zedong" as "the most historic transformation within the Party in China", which shows that historical experience and historical logic make us deeply realize how important a strong core of the Party’s leadership and mature leadership of the CPC Central Committee are to the success or failure of the Party’s cause and the future and destiny of the Party. Since then, the historical development has further confirmed this historical experience and historical logic. After the Zunyi Conference, our party gradually established the core position of Mao Zedong, had its own leader who was deeply trusted by the public, established a strong authority of the CPC Central Committee, and made unprecedented great achievements in the party’s cause.
Three, maintaining the party’s core and the unity of the party is an important principle of party building.
Democratic centralism is the fundamental organizational principle and leadership system of our party, and it is an important sign that Marxist political parties are different from other political parties. Our party was established in accordance with this principle from the beginning. The essence of democratic centralism is "the combination of centralism on the basis of democracy and democracy under the guidance of centralism". Carrying forward inner-party democracy can give full play to the wisdom of the whole party, and the wisdom of the whole party must be correctly concentrated, and the core of leadership is the "brain" and "hub" of collective wisdom. Therefore, maintaining the centralized and unified leadership of the party core and the CPC Central Committee is the proper meaning of democratic centralism. The "Resolution" rose to the height of the party’s discipline and the principle of party building, and summarized the historical experience in this regard.
When reviewing the party’s history and criticizing sectarianism, the Resolution pointed out that the "Left" lines during the Agrarian Revolutionary War not only opposed the political line of Comrade Mao Zedong, but also opposed the organizational line of Comrade Mao Zedong. Not only did sectarianism break away from the masses outside the party, but it also formed sectarianism that broke away from the masses inside the party. The whole Party has also fought against attempts to split the Party, thus ensuring the Party’s reunification under the general principle of Marxism–Leninism.
The Resolution also analyzes the causes of the wrong organizational line, pointing out that the petty bourgeoisie’s tendency in organizational life is easily manifested as individualism and sectarianism divorced from the masses due to the limitation of the lifestyle and thinking methods of the petty bourgeoisie in general, and especially due to the backward and scattered patriarchal society and the social environment of the guild in China. This tendency is reflected in the party, which leads to the wrong organizational line of the "Left" line we mentioned earlier. The fact that the Party has been in scattered rural guerrilla warfare for a long time is more conducive to the development of this tendency. This tendency is not to work for the party and the people at self-sacrifice, but to use the strength of the party and the people and undermine their interests to achieve personal and sectarian goals. Therefore, it is incompatible with the party’s principle of contacting the masses, the party’s democratic centralism and the party’s discipline. This tendency often takes various forms, such as bureaucracy, paternalism, punishment, liberalism, extreme democracy, anti-independence, guildism, mountainism, etc., which all undermine the party’s ties with the people and unity within the party.
The analysis of "Resolution" refers to something, and it is also derived from the painful experience of our party. In June 1936, after the Central Red Army joined forces with the Red Fourth Front Army, Zhang Guotao was divided with the Central Committee on the issue of "going north" or "going south". Relying on his strength, he began to bargain with the Party Central Committee. When the Central Committee refused to accept his conditions, he brazenly led the army south and set up a "Central Committee", which not only caused great losses to the Red Fourth Front Army, but also seriously affected the victory of the Red Army’s main force. So is Wang Ming. After returning from the Soviet Union in November 1937, Wang Ming claimed to be the "imperial envoy" of the Communist International, trying to override the CPC Central Committee by himself. At the Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party conference held in December, he made a speech entitled "How to continue the national war of resistance and strive for victory in the war of resistance? "Report, against Mao Zedong put forward, Luochuan the Political Bureau of the Central Committee enlarged meeting adopted in the United front adhere to the independent principles and policies; On March 24, 1938, he submitted the Proposal for the Provisional National Congress of the Kuomintang in the name of the Central Committee. From May 26th to June 3rd, 1938, Mao Zedong gave a speech on protracted war in Yan ‘an, which was a programmatic document for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to guide War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. In early July, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China called Changjiang Bureau to ask Xinhua Daily published in Wuhan to be published as soon as possible, but Wang Ming, then secretary of Changjiang Bureau, refused to publish it on the pretext that the article was too long. In March 1940,Wang Ming reprinted in Yan ‘an the book "Struggle for a More Boolean Sevik of the Chinese Communist Party", which concentrated on his "Left" erroneous views. Wang Ming’s disrespect and disobedience to the leadership of the CPC Central Committee had a very serious impact and caused a certain degree of ideological confusion within the Party, so that Mao Zedong’s important report "Transforming Our Learning" made at the Yan ‘an cadre meeting in May 1941 could not attract enough attention. It was also in the struggle against Wang Ming’s wrong line that the whole party further realized the correctness of Mao Zedong and the importance of maintaining Mao Zedong’s core position.
After the adoption of the Resolution, at the preparatory meeting of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong pointed out: All comrades should unite under this historical resolution, just as the resolution said that they should unite as a harmonious family. At the same time, Mao Zedong also pointed out: A team is often not neat, so we should always call for alignment, alignment to the left, alignment to the right and alignment to the middle. We should be in line with the central benchmark and the benchmark of the General Assembly. It can be seen that aligning with the party’s core and aligning with the CPC Central Committee is the crystallization of our party’s experience and summary of laws in strengthening its own construction through self-revolution.
Fourth, promote political firmness with theoretical sobriety and arouse the action consciousness of safeguarding the party’s core.
Without theoretical sobriety, there is no political firmness. Theoretical sobriety is the premise and guarantee of political firmness. The most important function of "Resolution" is to distinguish right from wrong and promote the theoretical sobriety of the whole party. The Resolution tells the whole party with a series of facts that Mao Zedong became the core of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the leader of China people, not because he was self-appointed, but because he showed a great revolutionary leader’s far-sighted political vision, unshakable revolutionary belief, extraordinary courage to explore, perfect art of struggle, outstanding and superb leadership skills, and because he represented the correct direction and victorious direction of the cause of the party and the people, which was in the best interests of the party and the people.
When the Resolution systematically summarizes the history of the Party before Zunyi Conference, it highlights the correctness of the line represented by Mao Zedong from the political, military, organizational and ideological aspects. Politically, after the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, Mao Zedong correctly pointed out that the national revolutionary trend was low, and in the case that the enemy was strong and we were weak nationwide, an adventurous attack would inevitably lead to failure; However, when the reactionary regime is constantly divided and the demands of war and people’s revolution are gradually restored and rising, the Party and the Red Army can use the strategic principle of "using contradictions, winning the majority, opposing the minority, and divide and conquer" to create and gradually expand the red base areas surrounded by the white regime. Militarily, Mao Zedong emphasized that the army must be under the absolute leadership of the Party, make full use of the enemy’s weaknesses and our strengths, fully rely on the people, and implement correct strategies and tactics in order to survive, win and develop. Organizationally, Mao Zedong emphasized that the Party should create a model of combining the principle of upholding truth with the discipline of the organization, and create a model of correctly carrying out inner-party struggle and correctly maintaining inner-party unity. Ideologically, Mao Zedong stressed the need to adhere to the leadership of proletarian ideology, focused on combining Marxism–Leninism’s universal principles with the actual social situation in China, specifically analyzed the actual situation and characteristics inside and outside the Party at home and abroad, and specifically summarized the historical experience of the China Revolution to solve various practical problems of the China Revolution. The "resolution" to Mao Zedong’s thought and the "left"All the wrong ideas are put out. By comparing the two kinds of leaders before and after, it is clear that Mao Zedong really represents the correct line, which further confirms his leadership position in the Party. Just as the "Resolution" said: "The whole party has unanimously recognized the correctness of Comrade Mao Zedong’s line and consciously United under the banner of Mao Zedong."
One month after the adoption of the Resolution at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China formally established Mao Zedong Thought’s guiding position in the whole party. Since then, our party has really matured in theory, and its theoretical maturity and sobriety have also made the whole party more conscious and confident in safeguarding the party’s core. After the Seventh National Congress, Liberation Daily, the organ newspaper of the CPC Central Committee at that time, spoke highly of it in an editorial celebrating the closing of the Seventh National Congress: from then on, the Communist Party of China (CPC) had his own leader recognized by all party member, and the people of China had the greatest leader they had never had since ancient times, that is, Comrade Mao Zedong. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has its own leader, which strengthens the unity of the party ten times and one hundred times, which indicates that the party has matured and it is a party that will win. The people have their own leader, knowing that as long as they follow him all the way, they will surely win, and they will achieve the goal that countless martyrs have shed their heads and blood for more than a hundred years. This has enhanced the people’s will to liberate and their confidence in victory, and enhanced their strength ten times and one hundred times. As predicted in this editorial, since then, under the correct leadership of the party’s first generation of central collective leadership with Comrade Mao Zedong at the core, the Communist Party of China (CPC) led the people of China to fight bloody battles and defeated the Japanese imperialist aggressors. After the people’s liberation war, he overthrew the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism with destructive force, won the victory of the new-democratic revolution, realized the national independence and people’s liberation that several generations of Chinese dreamed of, and opened a new era of development and progress of the Chinese nation.
Reviewing history is to enlighten the present and create the future. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the cause of our party has achieved all-round and groundbreaking historical achievements and undergone profound and fundamental historical changes because of the strong leadership of the Supreme Leader as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the core of the whole party, and the authority and centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee. In leading the development of the cause of the Party and the country in the new era, in examining and grasping the increasingly complicated development trend at home and abroad, and in the great practice of leading the whole party and people of all nationalities to forge ahead in the new era, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has far-sighted strategic judgment, skillful political leadership, clear and firm people’s stand and strong historical responsibility, which fully proves that he is worthy of being the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole party. Upholding and developing Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era is a great social revolution, which requires us to carry out great struggles with many new historical characteristics at all times. All comrades in the Party, especially leading cadres at all levels, must firmly hold the "four consciousnesses", be firm in the "four self-confidences", resolutely carry out the "two safeguards", highly identify with them ideologically, resolutely safeguard them politically, consciously obey them organizationally, closely follow them in action, and maintain a high degree of consistency with the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core in political stance, direction, principles and road. This is the fundamental political discipline and rules, the fundamental premise to promote the smooth development of the cause of the party and the people, and the important enlightenment of the party’s history.